He’s His Own Cliche : Knox Tells Ram Players to Make and Keep Promises

Chuck Knox is hunched as he sits, and he does not even try to mask the pain he guesses will force him to undergo back surgery soon. In still moments, it makes him look older, stooped, a little shrunken, and the resuscitation of the Rams seems a burden too large.

But, when Knox talks, the pain is not nearly enough to shake his laser intensity, and the Rams’ still-commanding second-term coach certainly does not look frail.

During an afternoon break in the league’s annual meetings here last week, Knox, 59, has enough energy to conduct a lengthy discussion, breaking cadence only when his wife, Shirley, comes by. Knox promises her he’ll be done in a few minutes. About five minutes later, he is up and joining her.

If you spend time with Chuck Knox, you hear his promises and learn about his pride in keeping them. His plans to rejuvenate the Rams from their two-year sleepwalk, he says, involve forcing his players to make and keep their own hard promises.

These are cliches, of course, and he knows that. But he makes it clear that these are the cliches that have guided his life and, he believes, will guide the Rams back to the success they achieved under him 14 years ago.

After 19 years without a Super Bowl appearance, he says he isn’t much different from the 40-year-old East Sewickley (Pa.) native who inherited the Ram job almost two decades ago. He left it and returns again, a hard-scrabble man with a hard-scrabble past.

Chuck Knox still burns to do what he does best.

Question: It has been months since you took the Rams’ job, and though you haven’t had a team meeting, you’ve been talking to your new players on the phone. What have you been telling them?

Answer: The message is: Come prepared. Work in this off-season. The message is: If you’re going to make 99% of your money for the whole year playing professional football, then you ought to devote a large part of your time in the off-season to conditioning, training, because this is where you make your livelihood.

It’s a tough fix. But we have a plan of what we want to do. We want to be organized and have a commitment.

Q: The Rams haven’t been the most disciplined team over the last few years; I don’t think the coaching staff ever really fined anybody. . . .

A: We have a fine system set up, and once a player understands what the fine is, he fines himself. I don’t fine him. You know the rule, and you violate the rule, you have fined yourself. If you’re overweight, if you’re late. . . .

Q: That sounds as if you’re trying to instill personal responsibility.

A: That’s what it is. Be held accountable. These guys have to live and understand this. This is not a country club. I say, if work was fun, why do you have to pay people to do it? If this job was easy, playing professional football, we wouldn’t have enough fields in the country for everybody that would want to play it.

Q: It seems that credibility, with the players and everyone else believing in what you say, is a big part of what you’re about. Is that a key part of turning a team around?

A: I think it is. I think we’re trying to raise the expectancy levels, and we also want them to know that we expect more from them. It’s a two-way street.

This is the greatest game in the world, professional football, and I like to tell them, “Hey, there’s two great things about it: one is winning; two is getting paid.” . . .

Look, there’s a whole lot of people in this country working a whole lot harder for a whole lot less money, and we’re playing a game. . . . There are mothers scrubbing floors--got arthritis and this and that--to feed families, and here’s a guy making $300-400,000 a year and he’s got that “poor-me syndrome.” . . .

I can say, “Hey, let’s keep one thing straight. Every football player, to a man, believes three things: one, he’s underpaid; two, he’s overworked; and three, he’s better than he is. But there isn’t anything wrong with that because most people in business and society believe those things about themselves.

Q: How do you keep going? How do you get excited about inheriting a team that lost its last 10 games last season?

A: You know, it’s been a challenge to me, and I’ve always enjoyed it. Plus we’ve had success in doing it.

In fact, sometimes we’ve had success too soon. Then, instead of drafting fifth or something, you’re drafting 15th or 18th, so sometimes you can win before the talent is ready to win successfully.

Q: Are you saying that’s what might have happened in Seattle--that you succeeded too quickly, got stuck in the back of the draft, then kind of leveled off?

A: Yes, and what it does, it puts you behind. . . . What I’m saying to you is there are a lot of things that have got to be done.

We have become very competitive early in three different situations, and in fact if you go back and look at the list of the National Football League, I think only four or five times has a coach, a new coach, come into a losing situation and gone on to the playoffs in his first year. Well, we’ve done it twice: with L.A. the first time and at Seattle.

I’m not trying to be braggadocious on you. I’m just stating those are the facts, and also to indicate how tough it is to do it. We’ve got a big rebuilding job to do here in terms of veteran players and getting a commitment to work hard and play hard.

Q: That sounds draining. Are the first two or three years always the toughest on the coach?

A: I look forward to it. My doggone back has been bothering me lately, so I may have to get my back fixed. That takes a little out of it.

I want to win real badly. And I want to do it the right way, hopefully. I am consumed by that.

Q: Is this going to be the cap to your career?

A: Yeah, this is gonna be c’est la vie.

Q: How much longer then, two years, five years, 10 years?

A: I don’t know how long it’s going to be. I just want to get it done, turn it around.

Q: There are those who say you’re a coach who can make a team good, and yet you haven’t been able to make a team great.

A: Well, I think we had some pretty good football teams. We were one game away (from being great) where a number of things happened. That’s more than you can say about a lot of people, a lot of coaches and a lot of teams. But I think if we have the talent, we’re capable of taking it there. . . .

One of the deficiencies of hindsight is that while you know the consequences of the action that was just taken, you do not know the consequences of some other course of action you did not pursue. That’s Winston Churchill, OK?

Q: Chiefs’ Coach Marty Schottenheimer and others say if you play a Chuck Knox team, they’re not going to do the things to lose. They make their opponents find a way to win.

A: That’s been my coaching philosophy forever. I’ve worked for some great coaches. They always talked about preparation . . . Blanton Collier, Weeb Ewbank, men like that.

Some people would misinterpret that statement, but what that statement means is (by) being prepared, “We’re not going to give this guy the game.” Make him come down the hard road. Pressure him into making the mistakes. I’ve played that way even when we didn’t have talent, (and I’ve) found a way to win.

Q: There are so many first-year coaches in the league now, if one of them asked you, “What’s the secret to lasting 20 years?” what would you tell him?

A: One thing I would tell them is, regardless of what they’re made out to be in the media, take the philosophy that you’re not as good as or as bad as you’re made out to be.

Through victory or defeat, take that same pattern. Don’t take yourself so seriously, because when adversity strikes, you’re going to be mortally wounded because your ego can’t deal with it.

That’s when burnout time comes, because you think that you’re so great that you could will it to happen. You can’t will it to happen. . . . You can work to make it happen. But, no matter how hard you try, you just can’t will it.

Q: What was it like for you at the end there in Seattle, when it seemed the team was kind of stuck?

A: We couldn’t get over that hump. We weren’t active in Plan B. We were hurt in the (Brian) Bosworth deal. (The infamous linebacker was injured not long after Seattle drafted him and never was a major factor.)

But we were competitive, you know, all those years, particularly when the Nordstrom family had it (before Tom Behring bought the club). Those six years there, we were very competitive, and particularly so in relationship to where they had been.

Q: You seem to have the ability to understand quickly when management is cooling on you. Did you feel that in Seattle?

A: I knew when the ownership changed (in 1989), and we won the division that year and they fired (General Manager) Mike McCormack. . . . Mike McCormack had hired me.

Anytime that happens, you’re always going to be suspect to people who want to make a change or want to get their own guy in there or whatever.

Q: Was there ever a fear on your part that you’d be gone and wouldn’t get another chance?

A: I didn’t think about that. I’d done a good job in coaching all the years. I’ve got a good reputation, I think, with people, and I say that because I’ve never been out of work in 38 years. I’ve always been employable.

Q: After all these years, can you say that your steel town common sense--”Eighth-grade Sewickley” as you call it--is still what you’re about?

A: Oh, yeah. Eighth-grade Sewickley is still there. Still use it.

Q: Is that what has gotten you through two decades in the NFL?

A: That’s been a lot of it. Plus, I’ve learned. I’ve learned a lot in my lifetime. Just take “The Powers That Be,” a very interesting book to me (about the building of four media empires: CBS, Time magazine, the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times). I retain a lot of things that I read. And I use them.

Q: Do you have a hero?

A: There have been a lot of great men. I’ve studied a lot of them. I don’t have a particular favorite. I have a whole group that I like.

You know, I like things like Lee Iacocca’s book. Learned a little something out of that book. And one of the things is when he was interviewing MBAs from Harvard business school, Wharton school of business, Stanford business school for jobs. . . .

He knew their grade-point average. He knew they had the MBAs. He knew all about the school. He said no amount of quantitative analysis could tell him whether this person had a burning desire to want to win. Whether or not this guy was going to have a sense of urgency; whether or not this guy was going to be a tireless worker; whether or not this guy was going to be lazy.

And the second thing he said was that no amount of quantitative analysis could tell him whether or not this guy could make a decision. Because so many times you want to have all the facts, everything to make a decision. By that time it’s too late. . . .

It’s things like that that I can relate to what I do.

Q: Do you see any kind of parallel between the building of empires and the building of a football team?

A: Yeah, I think. . . . When I read about the (Los Angeles Times’) Chandler family, how those things came about, the competitiveness, the competition that existed, the way they structured. . . . They really built an empire. And the same way with Bill Paley (of CBS), the Washington Post, (Time magazine’s Harry) Luce. I think there’s a lot of truth there for building anything. You’ve got to get a good solid foundation to begin with, and a good organization.

In this business, it’s the acquisition of talent. That’s the name of the game. You’ve got to have football players, because they win games. They’re the ones that are going to do the blocking and tackling and the coach’s job is to structure and create the climate so they have a chance to be successful.

Q: Being the man who doesn’t duck responsibility, is that difficult sometimes?

A: I don’t think it’s hard to do. If you’ve worked, and you’ve done everything that you could have possibly done, this is it. Hey, this is the best I could give and I gave it. I was in the arena. I fought my butt off. So, hey, I didn’t get it done, or I got it done.

I’m comfortable with that, I can live with that. As long as I could go to bed at night knowing, hey, I did my best.

Q: This year, a lot of younger guys got the jobs, guys 34, 35 years old. Do you think management sometimes is fixed on bringing in fresh blood over experience?

A: I really do. There’s a guy like Marv Levy (who has) gone to the Super Bowl the past two years, and he’s 62 or 63. Don Shula’s 63. I think as long as you’re productive, and as long as you are willing to change or want to improve, it doesn’t make any difference.

My definition of experience is not what happens to a man, it’s what a man does with what happens to him.

Q: Are you still getting better?

A: Yeah. I’m analyzing, working with other coaches. Steal some ideas. There’s no pride of authorship when it comes to this business. If it’s a good idea and it helps, we’re going to use it.

Q: Since your last time in L.A., you’ve been known as “Ground Chuck,” yet in Seattle you threw the ball, in Buffalo you threw it.

A: Sure, we threw the ball a lot. But here we need to get back to where we have some balance, got to take some pressure off of Jim Everett.

Q: You’ve said Everett is the most talented quarterback you have ever had, and it’s been said many times, “If Knox only had a real quarterback. . . .” Is it exciting to think about what Everett can do for you?

A: It’s exciting and it’s challenging. We need to get some things straightened out there so we can improve the productivity. If you look at how many touchdowns they scored inside the 20 last year, I mean, they’re way down in the league; the number of turnovers down in there, very high.

Q: Before you came here, did you investigate the situation? This is not known as a problem-free team.

A: Sure, I looked into it. I talked with people about it. I didn’t come into this situation with my eyes closed. And I didn’t come in to this job because I needed a job. I could have had another coaching job if I wanted it, or I could’ve said, “Hey, I’ll just retire (and) go to Palm Springs. I’ll go take it easy. I had 37 good years of coaching.”

But I wanted to coach. I took a good look at this situation. It’s a big challenge, no question about that.

Q: This vice president title you have, is that something you insisted on having?

A: No, in fact . . . they asked me what I wanted on my card. . . . (He shows his card, which says, “Chuck Knox, head coach.”)

I’m not into titles. That’s what I am, head coach. Now I’m responsible for other things here, and that’s fine, I want that responsibility.

But I told an assistant coach one time that I was interviewing for a job--he was talking about he wanted this title and that title and this and that. I told him, “If you want a title, go join the service. Everybody in there has got one. I want workers.”